///From the author: these are some of the ships from stories that take place in the Spacers Saga universe, which I designed and modeled in Blender before making infographics on Adobe Illustrator. This is likely to be an ongoing/continually updated series, so buckle up... The only limit here is the speed of light (and maybe not even that!)
Frontier Wars era
Tanganyika-class fast attack cruiser:
Following the Jovian Civil War (2325-2341), the Interplanetary Defense Corps (IDC) drew up plans to address the shifting political scene in the solar system, especially the surge in nationalism then sweeping across the frontier. One product was the Spacer 300 program, which aimed to modernize the IDC or “Spacer Corps” on the occasion of its tricentennial. Among many other R&D programs initiated in this time was that of the Tanganyika-class cruiser, which was designed to project power across the outer solar system by fielding a fast and maneuverable craft which could engage with peer enemies in space combat.
These vessels were centered around a single Remora-class pulsed fission engine which uses the thrust from a small nuclear detonation to propel the ship through space, and are designed for run-and-gun maneuver warfare, in which a number of CIWS laser turrets provide missile defense and close-in “knife fighting” firepower; three high performance ultra-relativistic electron beam (UREB) turrets are used to zap enemy spacecraft from medium range; and three quad-tube missile launchers deploy nuclear saltwater rocket-driven kinetic kill vehicle torpedoes to finish them off from intermediate to long range.
The order, processed jointly by the Martian Federal Shipyards and the Ceres Assembly, was for one hundred and twenty Tanganyika-class vessels, so as to put five of them in each of the twenty-four Aerospace Expeditionary Forces (AEFs) deployed across Solar Space at that point. The first of them were commissioned in 2351, but production was cut short only six years later due to the Zharan Uprising. More recently, they have been pressed into service in the Frontier War, where they have performed well in the fast attack role, often against numerically superior enemy forces deployed by the Alliance Armada.
Wayfarer-class interstellar transit vessel:
Beginning in the early 23rd century, a new era of space travel opened, on a scale not seen since the dawning of the era of fusion propulsion in 2029. Throughout the latter decades of the 22nd century, the ICA and its various constituent organizations held talks to discuss the destiny of the star systems beyond our own, which were finally becoming accessible thanks to several revolutions in spacecraft propulsion. In 2229, on the 200th anniversary of Larsen’s Gambit, a conglomerate of powerful interplanetary commercial interests joined together to establish the Interstellar Consortium (ISC) and answer that question once and for all.
For these spacefaring magnates, the mounting of the final obstacle to humanity’s conquest of the universe (interstellar travel, that is) would provide the impetus to spend many trillions of dollars to research, develop, and produce a tetrad of massive (>1 kilometer long) antimatter-powered spacecraft, meant to sojourn between Sol and the Alpha Centauri triple star system in order to set up permanent settlement there.
The first of these, the Spirit of Jupiter, was commissioned by the Consortium in late 2261 and completed in 2268 following lengthy delays. Three more followed, each named for another of the giant planets from which their parent corporations had reaped such profits over the previous hundred and fifty years. The mission to Alpha Centauri left in 2274, and arrived more than two decades later. The outcome of this epochal mission, and the political fallout of its immense cost, are now matters of historical record.
Reliable-class interplanetary plasma magnet cycler:
Interplanetary Dynamics (IPD) was established in 2122 by a trio of wealthy asteroid mining magnates, and was initially focused on the development and implementation of a new class of engine: the plasma magnet sail. This technology leverages the dynamics between a magnetic plasma field and the solar wind to sail between the many worlds of the outer solar system in only weeks or months, as opposed to years.
Since launching its first test flight in 2128, the company has come to operate primarily as a major defense contractor leveraging their shipyards at Europa Central to build transport craft for the Spacer Corps. IPD's power has risen swiftly as the need for military hardware as risen in the 24th century, so much so that by 2351 they had enough influence to sway elections in order to safeguard their profit.
As of 2389, the company operates a fleet of 5,726 spacecraft, both plasma sailcraft and other varieties, in its capacity as the IDC’s primary deep space transport contractor. While roughly a half dozen other major such contractors exist, none have the reach of IPD, which has lobbied its way right into the halls of power within the Martian Senate and the Ceresian Legislative Council. IPD’s Board of Directors leverage their immense wealth and prestige to control the manufacturing port of Europa as a veritable fiefdom.
Kuiper War era
Bumblebee-class fast attack corvette:
[Ship modelling: Bien Carlos Manzares; spirit livery credit to artist Megan Miller]
When the Bumblebee class entered service in 2507, it was intended to serve in a patrol and interdiction role, based on lessons learned during the Kuiper Belt Insurrections still ongoing at the time. During the Kuiper War (2525-2552), a conflict pitting the Union of Titan against the Martian Federation for control of the eponymous region of space, the Bumblebees excelled in frontline service for the Union, racing in and out of the vast engagement areas where much of the War's space battles took place using their excellent speed and agility.
When the War ended, however, many of these tried and tested vessels were left high and dry, so to speak, as their swiftness and biting close-in firepower were suddenly redundant in the postwar era. As a result, they wound up languishing in interplanetary scrap yards, awaiting the great breaking up that comes at the end of all ships’ service lives, at some point or another. This was considered a tragedy by those who served aboard them, many of whom held the vessels in high esteem for their abilities as combat implements and as homes away from home.
Some, like the Fool's Errand, were put to use as merchant vessels, salvage or rescue craft, and other new life roles. In the case of the Errand, its current crew of five (all of whom are deep space outcasts and vagabonds of the highest order) has repurposed the craft as a long-haul cargo hauler, with its high-performance Gungnir Corporation Mk. XVII nuclear salt water rocket put to good use for pushing high-priority cargo across the Kuiper Belt - if they can manage to keep enough nuclear fuel in the tanks to keep her flying, that is...
Scimitar-class missile cruiser:
As one of the major powers in Local Space, the Martian Federation maintains a fleet of more than forty-two hundred vessels (although nearly a third of these are nominally obsolete or less advanced classes as of 2564, which are maintained by Martian Fleet Command solely to fill out its ranks in the event of a return to open war with the Solar Union), each of which is ready to venture out and defend the interest of Father Mars. These vessels are commonly named after bladed weapons as an homage to Mars’ namesake.
Intended to be one of the premiere ships of the line for the Martian Federal Navy during the Kuiper War, the Scimitar-class missile cruiser wasn’t introduced until 2549, only three years before the war ended. As a result, it has instead found a second life as a long-range patrol and interdiction specialist, with several dozen of its class patrolling the deep space trade lanes of the Kuiper Belt in the early 2560s.
One of these, the Gratuitous Fortune, is on patrol in the outer reaches of the Haumea sector in 2564 when a merchant hauler called the Fool’s Errand comes in range–despite not being on the official registry for travel in that sector. As a permit enforcement vessel, the Gratuitous Fortune is obliged to chase down the erroneous traveler and search their cargo for contraband–or else shoot her out of the sky. The chase that ensues, with an Outer System Patrol cutter tagging along, is the introductory scene in INFINITUM.
More to come, when it's ready...
This is brilliant. You simply must expand on this.